I've just gotten back into reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, and this in turn has gotten me thinking about religion again. The issue to ponder is not whether a god or gods exist, as that's an easy one. Either they don't exist, or they just don't matter. If you believe, for example, that the christian God exists, just think about it for a moment....

Right! Now we're on the same page, the issue is whether or not it's ok that other people follow these weird religions (and by weird, I'm including christianity and catholicism). It could be argued that religion has sent millions to their deaths through war and silliness, but I don't really think that's a good enough reason to ostracise religious types. There are many cases in the past where religion has been a cause for atrocities, even recently, but just because Serbs and Croats love killing each other for petty reasons doesn't mean it should affect how we treat their fellow believers. I don't for a second think that christians are more likely to be more ethical individuals than atheists, but I'm having second thoughts as to whether the opposite is true.

The recent World Youth Day makes for a useful case study. I wasn't there, but I hear that it set the city alive in a positive way. It was much like the Sydney Olympics, except everyone was nicer. I also know quite a lot of religious people, and they're alright once you get to know them.

A useful thing to consider would be why intelligent people follow these religions. There may have been good reasons in the past, but in this day and age when there's enough evidence against it I believe it's because of social pressure, and it's easy. People grow up being told it's the way things are, their family is into it, their friends are into it, and their community is into it. For those who put in enough thought to struggle with their faith it's just too hard to escape, and why would you want to. For many of them, believing in God means being part of a community, and it's a fun hobby. Something to be interested and involved in. Other people have stamp collecting, cars and ultimate frisbee. They have God.

The main difference I guess is that stamps, cars and ultimate are real. Spending your life believing that something exists when it doesn't seems a bit silly. Let's not ostracise them for being religious, but educate people and hope they gradually start to move to hobbies that aren't as silly.

In my few months in Estonia I was given the opportunity to do a bit of frisbee coaching. I was a little out of practise so it was hard work to begin with, but was much easier (and more rewarding) by the end.

My first stint was coaching about 30 Estonian kids, a range of ages but around 10 years old. For the most part they didn't speak any English, the teachers weren't all that helpful, and not all the kids were particularly keen. There were a couple of kids who seemed to be friendless and devoid of any coordination, and there were a couple who didn't want to be there. They needed special attention and I just didn't have the manpower to give it to them. It was bloody hard work.

Then in July eleven Estonians attended a tournament in Prague, for which I played captain/coach. We had only four training sessions and they started off rusty, but by the last it was running like clockwork. At the tournament we had a new defence and a few endzone plays working beautifully, and a bit of improvement in our execution of everyday things like cutting and marking. It was mostly drops, silly throwaways, and some terrible throwing options which prevented us from finishing in the top 4. In fact our offence was sometimes terrible, but the execution of our defensive strategies allowed us to do OK in spite of this.

Most importantly, my coaching is improving and I'm learning more about what it involves to be a good coach. Coaching requires practice and hard work, and quite a lot of problem solving (which I enjoy). You need to keep up with current strategies and "best ultimate practice", then fit it to the group you are working with. Each situation offers different problems and requires a bit of imagination to solve it.

And I'm loving it.

I'm having my first attempt at making home wine. The most helpful resource I found was this website, because it's simple and practical. Most recipes require you to have all sorts of equipment that I don't have, and ingredients that I don't have. These ones don't.

Basically, I'm trying to make 1.5 litres of grape wine using 1 litre of grape juice from the shop, about half a cup of sugar, bread yeast, and water. I'll see how it works out in a couple of weeks. If it tastes like vinegar I'll probably drink it anyway.

Millerine's father makes wine using just berries and water, allowing it to ferment using the natural yeasts. It is quite good.

I drank coffee to be naughty because I was drunk, and now I'm suffering. The Estonians always speak Estonian around me, and I sometimes don't quite get what's going on. I understand the Sünnipäev means birthday, but I didn't get that it was Millerine's brother in law's birthday and that I'd have to get drunk tonight. At least I have confirmed that my favourite Estonian meal is in fact one I cook myself - shish kebabs made with keefirišašlökk (or something). That's basically a bucket of meat marinated in bad milk, shoved on a stick with various veges, and cooked on a bbq. Yummy! I invented the vegetables bit.

So it's been I think 22 days travelling with the bikes and only about 700km of cycling - lazy but very relaxing times. We spent most of the time in Slovenia and Croatia, with less than a day each spent in Italy and Bosnia. After this I reckon it's better to be travelling by bike than anything else, and really learnt to appreciate the beauty of the journey rather than the destination. The destination seemed best if you do nothing there, and nothing can be done in a lot of places. Dubrovnik was an incredibly beautiful city (romantic, even), but my best memories are of places with little to no buildings - rivers and lakes and mountains and people.

It's my 4th summer in Estonia and I feel I can appreciate a lot of things much better now. The physical characteristics of a typical Estonian are becoming easier to recognise (or, I don't just see that Estonian girls are very pretty, but what it is that makes them pretty.) I understand the ettiquette of the family party enough to know how to avoid getting incredibly pissed, but still keep up with boys (drink all your drinks, but drink the vodka at your own pace
- a single shot can take a long time to finish.) I understand that bus drivers throughout Europe don't understand a thing you are saying, even if they pretend they do. Basically, I feel more at home here and in Europe in general.

I drank coffee - boo! It's a lovely summer night with chirpy birds and not much in the way of darkness - hooray!

BTW, my bike trip will eventually make it's entire way to this blog

Since my employment with Qantas has been terminated I'm taking a few months off work and spending some time in Europe and North America. This blog is designed to describe the goings on in my life (it's all about me) which for the moment makes it a self obsessed travel blog.

Hooray!

I could have called it Wally Crocker's Blog, but it's not a catchy enough name. It needs to be spiced up a bit if it's ever going to sell.